REVIEW: Inherit the Bones

Inherit the Bones
Emily Littlejohn

Gemma Monroe is a detective in Cedar Valley, CO. She's six months pregnant and stressing over her relationship with the baby's father. Her life gets a lot more complicated when a traveling circus comes to town  and one of their workers is murdered. The killing reveals some dark secrets related to a 30-year old cold case. Gemma will discover that digging for the truth when it means revealing past dark deeds can be very, very dangerous.

I really like this series! I accidentally jumped in at book three, Lost Lake, a few months ago, and finally backtracked to read the first book. I like Gemma Monroe as a main character. She is very good at her job. She's intelligent, thorough, ethical, and determined, but being driven comes with a price. The unsolved murders of two young boys in 1985 haunts her. She has nightmares about the dead boys. Her determination to solve the case and get justice for the victims almost breaks her at times.

The mystery moves at a nice pace with plenty of suspense. I figured out some of the clues, but the ending surprised me. I love it when a book holds a few surprises back until the very end. Nicely done! I'm glad I finally jumped back to re-start this series at the beginning. It isn't necessary to read the books in order, but I do understand the characters -- especially Gemma -- a lot better now that I've read the first book.

There are three books in this series, with a fourth book, Shatter the Night, coming out in December 2019. I can't wait! For now, I'm moving on to the second book, A Season to Lie.